Zemgus Girgensons

Tampa still rolling out Mikheyev, Point, Kucherov, Hagel, Sergachev, Guentzel, Gonsalves, I guess Jansen Harkins, um, Sam Riley I guess didn't make the team, so hooray.

Uh, Jeff Veilleux, Zemgus Girgensons, Pontus Holmberg.

Uh, I suspect the fourth line nominally will operate as it did last year as, like, their third line shutdown unit, but, uh, we'll see.

Uh, obviously the power play one is where we're interested.

I watched a ton of them last year as well.

I loved in particular in kind of the meat of the season, whenever they'd play at home, Jon Cooper would so deliberately use that Gourd-Holmberg-Girgensons line to just hard match them and give the other team's top line fits, and that freed up some of their other players to cook offensively.

The power play was really the only weak point relatively in their statistical profile last year, and I'm fascinated to see what that looks removing Radish's one-timer from the top and bringing in Carlson, who's a bit more of a distributor at this point of his career.

They once again did not address the lack of right-hand shooting talent to play opposite Okularov, and maybe the answer is just gonna be actually finally using Brendan Hagel there full-time, which is not a bad idea considering how good he is, even though he can't, I guess, facilitate the one-time east-west.

Noel Acciari was their free agent add and is a darn good bottom sixer who could provide face-off help, defensive help, add some grit, whatever.

And then your extras are Girgensons and Gruntzer.

And those are good guys to have as extras 'cause you don't need to play them every night, but they can slide in and provide solid value if necessary.

Like, there's your 14 forwards.

So almost $29 million available next year with really not too many people that they have to re-sign.

like Pontus Holmberg, Gage Gonsalves, NHL all-star Zemgus Gergensens.

They don't have a ton that they have to throw a lot of money at.

Maybe Dominic James is going to be worth something.

When you have injuries, it creates opportunity.

The start of the year, it was not about injuries as much as GM making a decision and saying, "We are bringing up James and Destu." Coincided with Girgensons coming back from his preseason injury, and they sent down Chafee and Giki.

Yeah.

That was unrelated to an injury.

I think both will see significant time, but the fourth line spot might come down to special teams value.

And Anthony Cirelli remains the anchor, but with Zemgus Girgensons and Brandon Hagel in the mix, the depth is incredible.

Who do you see getting the nod for the third line against Nashville?

I'd lean toward Girgensons.

I'd bet on Geekie and Abruzzese pushing for spots, with Zada maybe starting in the AHL to develop.

But remember, the brief lists Zemgus Girgensons and Jansen Harkins too.

That's a lot of centers.

Some might get moved or assigned.